If we look at Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s work, there are a number of poems that could be considered or looked at through a post-colonial perspective; however, the poem I found most interesting was “Hiram Powers’ ‘Greek Slave’” because of the reaction that people had to the statue, as said in the editors’ description before the poem that said “some viewers objected to the statue as an immoral exhibition” (189). I do find it interesting that this poem was paired with “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point” since it seems to provide a counterpoint to the problems and concerns surrounding slavery, no matter the kind.
In “Hiram Powers’ ‘Greek Slave’”, EBB says that “On the threshold stands / An alien Image” (2-3), which places the figure as a representation of the “other” or “alien”, but why would a white figure be seen as an alien? Is she an alien because “Ideal beauty cannot enter / The house of anguish” (1-2)? Or are all who are enslaved placed in the position of the “other”?
What EBB points out in the middle of the poem, however, is that this figure represents “The serfdom of the world!” (10). However, doesn’t the fact that the figure is a white, Greek slave simply make the slavery of whites by the Turks that more awful? People were not and are not as likely to say the artistic representation of Black slavery or commodification of Blacks was/is immoral, which is clearly seen in the multitudes of mammy cookie jars and other Americana of African-Americans, or the wearing of Blackface by white actors.
However, EBB tells us that “beauty against man’s wrong!” (11) will overcome the horrific nature of white slavery. The final two lines were most striking when we are told that “East griefs but west, —and strike and shame the strong, / By thunders of white silence, overthrown” (13-14). Here, it seems like EBB is telling us about the power of the white colonized Greeks to no longer be silent and that the statue represents the voice that overthrows the colonizers.
Post-colonialism
If we look at Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s work, there are a number of poems that could be considered or looked at through a post-colonial perspective; however, the poem I found most interesting was “Hiram Powers’ ‘Greek Slave’” because of the reaction that people had to the statue, as said in the editors’ description before the poem that said “some viewers objected to the statue as an immoral exhibition” (189). I do find it interesting that this poem was paired with “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point” since it seems to provide a counterpoint to the problems and concerns surrounding slavery, no matter the kind.
In “Hiram Powers’ ‘Greek Slave’”, EBB says that “On the threshold stands / An alien Image” (2-3), which places the figure as a representation of the “other” or “alien”, but why would a white figure be seen as an alien? Is she an alien because “Ideal beauty cannot enter / The house of anguish” (1-2)? Or are all who are enslaved placed in the position of the “other”?
What EBB points out in the middle of the poem, however, is that this figure represents “The serfdom of the world!” (10). However, doesn’t the fact that the figure is a white, Greek slave simply make the slavery of whites by the Turks that more awful? People were not and are not as likely to say the artistic representation of Black slavery or commodification of Blacks was/is immoral, which is clearly seen in the multitudes of mammy cookie jars and other Americana of African-Americans, or the wearing of Blackface by white actors.
However, EBB tells us that “beauty against man’s wrong!” (11) will overcome the horrific nature of white slavery. The final two lines were most striking when we are told that “East griefs but west, —and strike and shame the strong, / By thunders of white silence, overthrown” (13-14). Here, it seems like EBB is telling us about the power of the white colonized Greeks to no longer be silent and that the statue represents the voice that overthrows the colonizers.